Sports

Brush looks to end strong at state cross country meet

Beetdiggers remain motivated for final race

By Brandon Boles

Times Sports Reporter

Posted:
10/27/2017 10:33:08 PM MDT

Members of the Brush girls cross country team pose for a group photo before practice at Brush High School on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2017 as they prepare for the state meet this Saturday. (Brandon Boles / Fort Morgan Times)

Before the season began, the Brush girls cross country team had high expectations on themselves. They also ran with a chip on their shoulder with something to prove this fall.

"Not a lot of people had high expectations for us to make it to state," senior Ashley Hinojos said. "We all believed we could and we all qualified and proved to the people who doubted us that we could do it."

Brush earned their spot in the 3A girls race at state by finishing third in the team standings at the 3A Region 4 race at Monfort Park in Greeley on Oct. 19. The Beetdiggers ran a fast race on a cold afternoon, setting many personal records. They beat the likes of fellow Patriot League teams Estes Park and Eaton in the standings to earn the team qualification.

Monfort Park has been the regular site for regionals and the team has seen some fast times there in each of the last few years.

"It's really all mental," senior Morgan Barfuss said. "A lot of the courses we run have hills, but the regional course is pretty flat. We know what our training is and we know we have the capability to do it."

The Beetdiggers were just one of two teams to get four runners to finish in the top 25 at regionals. Hinojos led the team with her time of 20:23 to finish fourth, followed by Jordan Kendrick at 20:55 for 14th place. The other two runners that cracked the top 25 were Emma Stone in 21:29 to finish 21st and Madelyn Sawyer at 21:39 for 25th place.

With their spot secured for state, the Beetdiggers have went through a week of training to get ready for the 3A girls state race this Saturday at the Norris Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs. The intensity in practices has remained high but the distances have gone down to get ready for the state meet.

Girls from the Brush cross country team warm up before practice at Brush High School on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2017. (Brandon Boles / Fort Morgan Times)

At first the team was looking to drive down to Colorado Springs Saturday morning since they will not race until 2 p.m. local time, but after a change of heart and some pleading from the seniors, they agreed to get their own hotel rooms and stay in Colorado Springs Friday night. Having the race at a later time and staying down there the night before is something head coach Vickie Quinlin feels will help her team even more.

"We will have lights out at 10 (Thursday), but we don't need to worry about waking up early the next morning," Quinlin said. "We can just get up, eat breakfast and check out late before heading over to the race."

Saturday will mark the first time that Brush will run the course in Colorado Springs this season. In past years, the team has made the trip down for the pre-state meet to kickoff the season in early August, but this year the team ran against fellow Morgan County schools Fort Morgan and Wiggins in the Morgan County Scrimmage.

Past experiences running the course will be the main key the team relies on this week.

"We ran it at pre-state last year, so I don't think it will be that big of a factor," Barfuss said. "It is a challenging course, so we need to be prepared for that."

Handling the nerves of running at state in a race with 155 competitors is something the team is also working on in practice. For some, it will be the first time they will run in a state meet ever or in a couple of years.

"There are a lot of nerves, but we have to treat it like another race," Hinojos said. "We just have to do what we know best and run. We're not taking it easy. This is where we should be peaking."

Even with some nerves, the team still plans to run with the chip on the shoulder that carried them in the regular season and at regionals.

"We want to finish the season strong and do our best at state," Hinojos said. "It's exciting because we know we can go out big."

Races at the 2017 Colorado State Cross Country Championships will begin at 9:20 a.m. and go until Brush runs in the 3A girls race at 2 p.m. Results from the race will be posted online at co.milesplit.com and chsaanow.com Saturday evening.

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